Improved vegetable-slicer



'NTTN STATES ATnNT Trice.;

llVlPROVED VEGETABLE-SLICER.

' Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 53,882, dated April 10, 1866.

To all whom it 'may concern:-

Be it known that we, CHRISTIAN ROSEN- BERRY and WARREN TANNER, both of Chicago, in the county of Cook and Stateot'lllinois, have invented a certain new and Improved Slicer for Cutting Vegetables and Similar Substances; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full and eXact description thereof. y

Our slicer is intended for domestic use, and may be very cheaply made. It is adapted to use the common table-knives, and to use knives of different sizes in the same framing, as convenience or necessity may require. The slicer is held by the handle, with the other end resting on a table or the like, and the vegetable is moved backward and forward along the surface.

We will first describe what we consider the best construction of our slicer, and will afterward point out the features which we claim as new.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification.

Figure l is a plan View, and Fig. 2 a side view, of the entire construction with a knifein place. Fig. 3 is a central longitudinal section. Fig. 4 represents some of the details detached from the other parts.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the gures.

A is a piece of hard board, havinga hole, a, as represented. B and B2 are side pieces, applied as represented. C C2 are exterior side pieces applied on theoutside of the pieces B B2, as represented.

D D D D, are thumb -screws introduced through slots in the side pieces, as represented. They are tapped into pieces of :metal let into the board A, as represented. By slackening these screws D D D D the side pieces may be loosened and readjusted at pleasure.

There are narrow triangular apertures E in the inner side pieces, B B2, and similar apertures F in the outer side pieces, C C2, adapted to receive the blade of a large knife. The width of these apertures is somewhat exaggerated in the drawings. In practice I make the form of the apertures correspond to the cross-section of an ordinary/knife. These holes to receive the knife may be made to coincide exactly, and thus accommodate the blade of a large knife, or by shifting the outer side pieces,

C C2, relatively to the inner pieces, B B2, they may be readj usted so that the material of the outer side pieces shall partially cover the triangular holes in the inner side pieces, and thus adapt the holes to receive and tightly confine the blade of a small knife. We can thus use blades of either large or small size at will.

By shifting all the side pieces up or down the height of the knife-blade E above the upper face of the board A may be changed at will within reasonable limits, so as to cut either thick or thin slices.

The slots in the side pieces are marked b and c. They are not perpendicular to the face of the board A, but are inclined, as represented.

The back of the knife should be always a little lower than the edge-that is, it should be nearer the plane of the board A, which is the gagin g surfaceso as to cause the knife to take hold or bite well on the material which is to be sliced. The inclination of the slots b c is of some service in this relation. The inclination of the slots b c brings the slots more nearly at right angles to the pull or strain on the knife than it would be if the slots were vertical.

The force with which the screw D may conipress the side pieces, B C, is sufficient, if the screws are tightly set, to hold them firmly in place against all strains; but as they are liable in practice to be set up rather feebly, it is desirable that the slots shall be in the best position to receive the strain as nearly as possible crosswise instead of lengthwise ofthe slots. The principal strain of slicing a vegetable is in the direction from the edge toward the back of the knife; but if the knife is set atan angle so as to bite into the Vegetable with considerable force, there will be an additional strain tending to lift the knife away from the gage A, and the actual strain or pull on the knife will be in an oblique direction between these two directions. The biting or lifting strain, being considerably less than the direct backward strain, makes the resultant force quite oblique, and the direction of these slots is such as to be nearly as possible at right angles to such resultant strain.

Another effect of the inclination of the slots b c is that when the slicer cuts thick slices the knife laps farther upon the solid face of theA board A, which is the gaging-surface, and when it cuts thin slices it is drawn back and nearer tothe edge of the hole. In other words, the inclination of these slots carries the edge of the knife E farther from the edge of the hole et in proportion as the knife is removed from the face of the board. This is important, because it affords an ample guidance in cutting very thick slices, and opposes but little frictional or adhesive surface to retard the movement of the slice in cutting very thin slices.

It will be obvious that the side pieces serve as guides to determine the direction in which the vegetable or other material to be sliced shall be moved in the act of being sliced by our machine. lVe esteem it important that the knife E' shall be conned not squarely 'across this path, but so as to cut the vegetable with a somewhat drawing cut; and we arrange the edge of the hole a and the several side pieces and screws obliquely, as shown in the plan View, Fig. l, so as thereby to induce such drawing cut.

In constructing our machine cheaply We propose to use common screws driven into the wood by a screw driver instead of thumb screws tapped into metal, as represented; but we prefer the more expensive construction represented when the cost is not an objection.

Having now fully described our invention, what we claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

The slicer herein described, composed of the bed'Aa, with the double side pieces, B B2 C O2, and adjustable holes E F, adapted to receive knives of different sizes and''hold l;them at various heights, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

CHRISTIAN ROSENBERRY. WARREN TANNER.

Witnesses:

YHILIP A. HAYNE, H. W. SeovrLL. 

